To Kill a Cactus - Heroes part 3

Heroes part 2: HERE

...

He reached the ground way before I did and as I was screaming and falling, he managed to stop me right before I landed face first in the mud, again. This seemed to be a running theme of the day. Anyway, understandably, I was panicking, I felt like a trapped animal. It didn't help that he had gone completly quiet as well.
"Oh, Ash, did you manage to catch a wild boar?" I heard a woman's voice asking from a distance.
"No, mum, I didn't bring any food today," he answered with a seriousness to his voice, that slightly scared me.
"Then what animal was making that horrible noise?" the woman finally arrived to the tiny entry room that we were standing in.
I got a good look of her when she stepped infront of a tiny light barely hanging in the sealing. If I had been able to make any noise I would've probably screeched of horror, since she was terrifying to say the least. Her hair seemed like it wanted to poke at every possible direction, it was dark and I could swear I saw a spider crawling over her forhead, Her skin looked almost yellowish with light grey spots allover it. Her clothes were ripped and there were layers of them, barely hanging on her body. There were large bumps around her joints and you could see all of her veins, as if her skin was translucent. As if that had not been enough, she was also holding a headless doll in her arms.
I slowly sneaked behind Ash, I had figured that was his name. 
He coughed his voice clear, but I could still hear it slightly shaking, while he answered his mother:"I brought somone with me tonight."
A little girl ran into the room that we were standing in, she looked at me with big bright green eyes and said in the most adorable voice: "Ash has brought home a girl!"
The woman was still quiet and looked at me as if she could see into my brain.
"Yes, this is my friend, I met her by the forest," Ash answered slowly.
That's not exactly how I would've described the situation, but I didn't correct him either. I tried to make myself look as little as possible.
"I like her," the little girl said and looked up to her mother, "can we keep her?" 
I didn't say anything, but I definitely felt panicked and was getting ready to just crawl up somehow the same way we got there.
"No," the woman shook her head and came closer.
Ash didn't move, instead he pushed me more behind him.
"She is going," she whispered. Her hand reached out to touch my cheek.
"Mum, it would be nice if you'd leave my friend alone," Ash said.
"She must go, she has a mission to complete and you are going with her, you are still missing your third hero, the whisperer will come to you by midnight as you see the dead pale moon over a bed of water," she gasped for air while she was saying all that and her voice went up and down, changing in tone and volume.
After that she just walked out of the room, the doll still dangling on her hand.
My eyes had become more used to the darkness and I could see her walking to a small chair, sit down and pull a giant needle out of an old pillow on the ground, then she continued to work on the dolls head.
I looked up at Ash, who seemed to have turned back to normal, he opened a wooden box next to us and put some food and bottles into his bag.
The little girl was standing infront of me, her eyes were locked onto me.
"Hello," I said quietly
She smiled, but didn't answer anything.
"What's your name?" I asked hoping to make her stop staring at me,
"Nora," she answered, but didn't even blink for the entire time.
"I am Paithoon, but you can just call me Paith," I said to her.
"I'll call you Cat," she said with a bright smile on her face.
I figured she still wanted to make me her pet.
"Your name means cat's eye, you see," she explained
"I didn't know that"
"I know"
She was very confident for being so little, her hair was in two uneven braids, she was wearing a fluffy dress, that had seen better days and she couldn't have been more than 5 years old.
"So you are a hero?" she asked
"I don't think so," I shook my head.
"Oh, you just don't know yet, that's ok," she smiled and finally walked away back next to the woman.
Ash finished packing his things together as well, he went over to his mother and the little girl, who I assumed was his sister and talked quietly to them, I didn't hear what he said and I didn't wish to pry either, the little girl hugged her and smiled at me, then they waved and he came back up to me.
"Let's go then," he said, smiling brightly, he opened a little door that I hadn't even noticed before, it blended into the wall. There was a staircase going up.
"Couldn't we have come down this way?" I asked him.
"I guess so, but it wouldn't have been so much fun," he shrugged his sholders and allowed me to go up first.
The stairs looked as if they were about to fall apart, so i went up as fast as possible until my head touched a piece of wood covering the opening to the stairs.
We reached a little green area, I climbed out and waited for Ash, but he wasn't coming, I looked down, but all I saw was darkness, I thought he had been right behind me.

...


To Be Continued

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